North East RadioWatch: July 24, 1998

Williams, Walker Split at WBZ

If at first you don't succeed...shuffle your anchors around and try
again. That seems to be the philosophy at WBZ-TV (Channel 4), where
the latest anchor shuffle splits the team of Jack Williams and Liz
Walker after almost 20 years together.

Here's how it plays out: Walker will move from co-anchoring the 6 PM
newscast to a new hourlong newscast at 5. Williams will anchor the 6
by himself, at least for now (although Virginia Cha is rumored to be
joining him there sometime soon), and Joe Shortsleeve gets promoted to
co-anchor at 5 and 11. Getting ousted from their evening spots are
veteran meteorologist Bruce Schwoegler and anything-but-veteran
wrestling-announcer-turned-anchor Sean Mooney. Schwoegler moves to
weekends for now, although NERW hears he's looking at other jobs both
on and off the air. Mooney goes to mornings after less than a year as
11PM co-anchor; always-tactful BZ chief Ed Goldman tells the
Boston Globe he's "not going to say we screwed up" by
putting Mooney in such a high-profile slot. Ed Carroll, who came to
WBZ from Springfield's WGGB (Channel 40) a few years back, gets the
top weather slots at 5, 6, and 11, with Barry Burbank joining Mooney,
Suzanne Bates, and Scott Wahle on the morning crew in Carroll's old
spot. At noon, WBZ radio legend Gary LaPierre keeps his TV side gig.

NERW's sorry to see Schwoegler get demoted; as with Williams' removal
from the 11 last year, we don't see what's to be gained by taking a
well-liked, well-respected broadcast veteran off the air.

In other MASSACHUSETTS news, Delilah's syndicated love-songs show is
returning to her old stomping grounds in Greater Boston, by way of
WSRS (96.1) in Worcester, which added the nighttime program this week.

Somebody tell the folks at 5 TV Place they can go home now: This
week's issue of TV Guide has an article about children's
TV, with a mention of the "now-defunct WCVB" in Boston. (Well, it
must be -- after all, WHDH-TV is alive and well, right?)

WSRO (1470) in Marlborough has a new hurdle to face in its attempt to
build a new tower on its property. The Marlborough City Council
denied the station's request for a tower move this week; an appeal is
planned. By the way, Boston Herald columnist Don Feder's
show on WSRO and WRPT (650 Ashland) is on summer hiatus; we should all
have jobs like that!

The Lowell Folk Festival kicks off Friday night, and once again this
year, Lowell's radio stations are planning to outdo each other with
coverage. WJUL (91.5) at UMass Lowell and WLLH (1400) will both
broadcast the whole thing, as they've done for years. And once again
this year, WCAP (980) will join them downtown. (An aside: your
editor, a WCAP alumnus, remembers the days when the station's Folk
Festival coverage consisted of parking an empty remote van downtown
while broadcasting satellite talk all weekend...) And Boston's WGBH
(89.7) will once again broadcast from the festival during Mai Cramer's
Friday night blues show and Dick Pleasants' Saturday folk show.

And the inevitable displacement application: W67BA in Dennis, which is
owned by WZBU (Channel 58), has applied to move to channel 24.

In CONNECTICUT, the FCC has dealt a setback to "La Nueva Radio
Musicale," the unlicensed Spanish-language staton in New Haven. Owner
Hippolito Cuevas did the right thing and applied to the Commission for
a waiver to be licensed below 100 watts. The FCC rejected the waiver
request, and ordered the station off the air. We're waiting to hear
from our New Haven listeners whether 104.5 is indeed silent now.

In NEW YORK, the morning team of Mason and Sheehan will soon be
history in the Albany market. After moving from WPYX (106.5) to WXCR
(102.3 Ballston Spa) last year, the duo apparently failed to provide
the ratings boost that the newer rock station hoped for, so WXCR is
buying out their contract effective August 31. Across town at
WFLY...was the Hillary Clinton banner stunt we told you about last
week actually done with the full knowledge of station management? And
was the one-day "suspension" of the jocks involved actually a planned
publicity stunt? That's what we're hearing, and we're not
surprised. And, hey, it landed WFLY a mention in Time
magazine this week...

There's a new morning drive host at classic rock WQRV (93.3
Avon-Rochester), and she won't have to change her commute much. Marti
Casper moves down the hall to the "River" from her current job as
co-host of the top-rated "Coffey and Casper" morning show on WBEE-FM
(92.5). Both stations are owned by Entercom.

Up in the hinterlands between Utica and Watertown (about which, more
later), David Atwood's Atwood Broadcasting Corp. is selling WBRV
(900/101.3 Boonville) and WLLG (99.3 Lowville) to William Flack's
Flack Broadcast Group for a reported $250,000. An update to last
week's sales: we're told the price on WLSV/WJQZ Wellsville was
$850,000.

Movin' on up: Two Corning-area FMs, WCBA-FM (98.7) and WGMM (97.7 Big
Flats) have applied to move across the river to a new tower site in
the hills southeast of the city. They'd each cut their power by about
half, but move up almost twice as high -- and in hilly terrain like
the Southern Tier, height is what matters. WCBA-FM and WGMM are
currently on the same tower as WNKI (106.1), up in the hills north of
town. That tower also used to hold WCLI (1450), which moved last
year to diplex with sister station WCBA (1350) on Davis Road.

And the inevitable displacement applications: Sonny Persad's
Auburn-area LPTVs have both applied to move, with W54AK Auburn going
to 32 and W69AN Union Springs-Cayuga to 15. WMHT's W04BD Glens Falls
wants channel 47, while W04AJ Schoharie would go to 8.

There's a new unlicensed station in VERMONT, and this "Radio Free
Vermont" on 96.5 is trotting out the hoary (and repeatedly
discredited) claim that it's purely an "intrastate" broadcaster and
thus not covered by FCC jurisdiction. Their Web site is an unusual
combination of big-band music and hardcore right-wing "patriot" links.
NERW wonders: if what RFV is doing is so very legal, why doesn't the
website include any actual information about the station's location,
phone number, personnel, etc.?

In MAINE, the morning show on WLAM (870 Gorham), WLAM-FM (106.7 North
Windham), and WZOU (1470 Lewiston) has a new addition. Veteran TV
sportscaster Frank Fixaria is joining radio veteran Bud Sawyer on the
show.

Cumulus has closed on its $6.4 million purchase of WQCB (106.5 Brewer)
and WBZN (107.3 Old Town).

From the rumor mill: NERW hears Metro Networks is looking for
newscasters in the Portland market; could WGAN be getting ready to
make the Metro move? Or will WLAM/WMWX/WTHT be the new clients?

It's ratings time, with Spring books out for most of the markets in
the region. We'll start down in New York City, where the top spot 12+
is shared for the first time by a Spanish-language station, WSKQ
(97.9), which tied with perennially top-rated WLTW. The usual
suspects fill out the top five: WQHT, WHTZ, and WCBS-FM. In the
'burbs, WSPK stayed on top in the Poughkeepsie book, followed by a
climbing WRWD, WPDH, and WHUD. Across the river in
Newburgh-Middletown, WSPK also dominated, followed by WHUD, WPDH/WPDA,
and WCZX/WZAD. The Long Island market stayed status quo, with
WALK-FM, WHTZ, WXRK, and WBLI all reprising the top four from Winter.
Upstate, Ithaca's WYXL joins the 20+ share club, with more than twice
as many listeners as second-place WQNY. Buffalo's WJYE surged from
third to first place, followed by WYRK, WBEN, and WHTT-FM. Rochester,
Syracuse, and Albany will all be out next week.

In CONNECTICUT, WEZN dropped slightly but ended up in first place in the
Bridgeport book, followed by a sagging WICC and WEBE. WEBE gained in
the Stamford-Norwalk book, though, rising from second to first place,
followed by New York's WFAN, WHTZ, and WCBS. You'll have to go down
to the bottom of the list to find the market's local stations, with
WKHL the highest rated in ninth place. Waterbury's WWYZ stayed in
first place, followed by WKSS and then an amazing performance from
WWCO, which more than doubled its ratings from the last book. WWCO's
simulcast partner, Hartford's WDRC, is credited with a sizable ratings
gain as well, and we wonder how much of that is really WWCO listening
as well. Danbury's WDAQ was down somewhat but still first, followed
by WEZN, WRKI, and a dipping WLAD. In New Haven, WKCI, WPLR, and WYBC
all gained to end in first, second, and third place respectively.
WNHC's numbers were down -- but then Arbitron notes "station went dark
before end of ratings period!" In Hartford, WRCH topped the market,
followed by WTIC(AM), a rising WWYZ, WKSS, and WTIC-FM. And in New
London, WCTY led the market, followed by a climbing WNLC and a
dropping WQGN.

On we go to MASSACHUSETTS, where Boston looks the same as it did in
the Winter book, with WBZ leading, followed by WJMN and WMJX
(switching places 12+ from last time), WBCN, and WXKS-FM. In
Worcester, WSRS was trailed by WAAF, WXLO, and WTAG. Springfield's
WMAS-FM took the top spot, followed by last book's #1, WAQY-AM/FM,
then WPKX, WHYN-FM, and WHYN(AM). WFHN stayed first in New Bedford,
with WCTK making impressive gains for second place. On Cape Cod, WQRC
remained in first place, followed by an improving WCIB, WOCN, WXTK,
and in fifth, WFCC, perhaps the best 12+ performer of any classical
station in America.

In NEW HAMPSHIRE, Manchester's WZID is the other new member of the 20+
club this time out, not to mention the only station in the market to
make double-digits 12+. Trailing in WZID's dust were WGIR-FM, WOKQ,
WFEA, WAAF, and WGIR(AM), which showed a big drop this time out.
(NERW wonders if Capstar's cuts just might be to blame for that one.)
On the Seacoast, the Portsmouth book found WERZ with a huge surge that
landed it in first place, followed by WHEB, WOKQ, and a declining
WTSN. Two of Capstar's stations failed to make any showing at all;
WXHT and WTMN both registered no significant listenership.

We promised a few new Web sites last week, so here goes:

One that we've been playing with is http://www.terraserver.com, which
is an ad for Microsoft -- but is also a database of satellite images
of Earth, and is searchable by geographic coordinates, which means
that (in theory anyway) it can yield satellite views of your favorite
tower sites. It's still rather weak when it comes to the Northeast,
but we picked out some nifty images of West Coast tower sites.

Another one we just found out about is a TV
database which will tell you what TV stations put predicted grade
A and grade B signals over any specified point. It's designed to give
home-satellite viewers an idea of whether they can legally receive
network affiliates off the bird, but NERW readers can no doubt come up
with plenty of other uses for it.

Some new addresses for some old favorites: Shel Swartz' WRKO history
site is about to move from http://www.lotsofun.com/wrko to
http://www.big68.org, thanks in part to a contribution from former
'RKO GM Perry Ury. (Hey, Shel...why no link to the Boston Radio
Archives?) And Mark Roberts continues to improve his Chicago
radio pages, which are now to be found at
http://www.tezcat.com/~markrobt/amfm/index.cgi/.

And we'll close this week's issue with a few observations from our
road trip to Watertown, New York:

This is truly a two-owner market, with every significant signal in
town controlled either by Forever Broadcasting or Clancy-Mance.
Forever has the biggest stick in town, country WFGY (97.5), one of the
few stations in America to pull a 30+ share in recent memory.
"Froggy" and sister station WUZZ (1410) recently moved their studios
from the WUZZ transmitter site on Route 12 southeast of town to the
downtown building that also WTNY (790) and WCIZ (93.5). WUZZ is
all-satellite, all the time, with ABC's oldies format. It has applied
to move from its current two-tower array to WTNY's transmitter site
alongside I-81 south of Watertown. We drove by the WTNY site and fell
in love with the classic brick transmitter building, complete with
metal railing along the roof that spells out "W-T-N-Y." Closer
observation showed that the door is still marked with the original
WWNY calls. The middle tower of the three-tower WTNY array still
hasn't been replaced after last winter's ice storm. WTNY is a typical
news-talker, while WCIZ is classic rock as "Z-93." Despite a CP to
move to 93.3 from the WFGY site, WCIZ remains on 93.5 from its
original tower north of Watertown off Route 12, and there's still no
sign of the promised new tower next to WFGY's low stick on a high
cliff east of the city.

As for Clancy-Mance, the Econolodge where we stayed backed up to their
facility on Wealtha Avenue. The building once housed only WATN
(1240), which is still there along with its single stick. Today, it's
also home to WTOJ (103.1), WOTT (100.7), and WBDR (102.7)/WWLF
(106.7). WTOJ is licensed to Carthage, but its 104.1 translator,
W281AA, is mounted on the WATN stick and is strong in most parts of
the city. We enjoyed hearing how much morning jock John Spezzano
sounds like his brother Scott of Rochester's WPXY. WOTT is licensed
to Henderson, about 10 miles south of Watertown, and runs oldies. And
WBDR/WWLF are CHR "The Border," with Cape Vincent-licensed WBDR aimed
at Kingston, Ontario and Copenhagen-licensed WWLF serving Watertown.
Their bumper sticker shows "102.7" with a maple leaf and "106.7" with
a star.

The only other stations in town (besides the public radio relays,
which we'll get to in a moment) are religious WMHI (94.7 Cape Vincent,
a relay of Syracuse's WMHR) and a 90.1 translator of WYFG in Gaffney,
S.C. Several Kingston stations come in well, including country CFMK
(96.3), AC CFLY (98.3), and oldies CFFX ("GTO 960"). A bit of
more-careful tuning was needed to hear CHR CKLC (1380), community CFRC
(101.9), and the CBC's CBCK (107.5; Radio One) and CBBK (92.9; Radio
Two). The local cable system brings in CKWS-TV (Channel 11; CBC) and
Ottawa's CJOH (Channel 13; CTV).

Our transmitter-site drive took us into the hills east and south of
Watertown, starting with the WFRY and WSLJ (88.9) sticks along Route
126. WSLJ is part of the Canton-based WSLU public radio network, one
of three public radio relays in town -- WRVJ (91.7) relays Oswego's
WRVO from a state office building downtown, while WUNY (89.5)
rebroadcasts Syracuse's "Classic FM" WCNY from the WNPE (Channel 16)
public TV tower near Copenhagen. Also out in the hills were the
WWNY-TV (Channel 7)/WTOJ tower on Route 126 (with a transmitter
building clearly marked "WWNY-TV Transmitter," and offices attached
that were apparently once the town court!) and the WWTI (Channel
50)/WWLF tower near Copenhagen. One more TV note: WWNY's set used to
be at WBZ-TV -- remember the very blue set that was in use from 1993
until 1996?

From Copenhagen we stayed up in the hills as we listened to
Lowville ("Low" rhymes with "cow") country station WLLG (99.3) and
found its studios in a second-floor office on State Street. WLLG
simulcasts with Boonville's WBRV (900/101.3) and had a very, er,
interesting noon local newscast ("There was a car accident in
Boonville last night, but we haven't been able to get a hold of
Boonville police, so we don't know what happened") and remotes from
the county fair.

Returning to the vicinity of I-81, we stopped in Sandy Creek to see
the transmitter of WSCP (1070), which wasn't on the air. The bumper
stickers we picked up at the WSCP studios in Pulaski still showed
"1070" along with "101.7," which was on the air, although we didn't go
up to that transmitter.

Our last stops of the trip were in Syracuse, where we had a very nice
visit with new PD J.J. Rice at WWHT (107.9) and an enjoyable tour of
the facility that's now home to Hot 107.9 and the four other Cox
stations, WSYR, WHEN, WYYY, and WBBS. The final stop was near the
I-690/Thruway interchange, where the tower of Phoenix-licensed WRDS
(102.1) sits on a hill above the studios, which were empty - no big
surprise considering that the station has been on satellite every time
we've heard it. We pulled out the TV here as well, and in addition to
the locals, we saw Rochester's 8 and 13, Utica's 20 (with a killer
signal), 33, and PBS translator on 59, and Watertown's 16 and 50.